Venezuela criticizes Obama's comments on Chavez

By The Associated Press
| 1:02 p.m.Dec. 14, 2012

People are seen refelcted on an image of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez during a mass in support of him in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012. Chavez is recovering favorably despite suffering complications during cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president Nicolas Maduro said Thursday amid uncertainty over the Venezuelan leader's health crisis and the country's political future. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
— AP

People are seen refelcted on an image of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez during a mass in support of him in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012. Chavez is recovering favorably despite suffering complications during cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president Nicolas Maduro said Thursday amid uncertainty over the Venezuelan leader's health crisis and the country's political future. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
/ AP

CARACAS, Venezuela 
The government expressed outrage at U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday for calling Hugo Chavez's policies "authoritarian" at such a "delicate moment," with the Venezuelan president recovering from a difficult cancer surgery.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Obama's comments were further damaging relations between the two nations and constituted another sign of U.S. "aggression and disrespect."

Venezuela "demands respect from the president of the United States and officials from his government for the dignity of the Venezuelan people, its institutions and especially for the figure of Commander Hugo Chavez," the statement said.

Obama said in an interview with WLTV Univision 23 in Miami on Thursday when asked about his message for the Venezuelan people: "The most important thing is to remember that the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of the Venezuelan people. We've seen from Chavez in the past authoritarian policies, suppression of dissent."

Obama said he wouldn't speculate on the medical condition of Chavez, who underwent his fourth cancer-related operation in Cuba on Tuesday.

"We would want to see a strong relationship between our two countries, but we're not going to change policies that prioritize making sure that there's freedom in Venezuela," Obama said, according to a transcript.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas read the government's response on television Friday, saying that "Venezuela has become an authentic democracy" during Chavez's government.

Venezuelans "openly exercise freedoms and rights that U.S. society is far from reaching," the statement said.

"With his despicable statements in this very delicate moment for Venezuela, the president of the United States takes the responsibility of pushing bilateral relations toward increased deterioration, showing evidence of the continuity of its policy of aggression and disrespect toward our country," the statement said.

Chavez's government has long been embroiled in tensions with the U.S. government, even as Venezuela has relied on the U.S. as a top market for its oil.

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas has been without an ambassador since July 2010. Chavez rejected the U.S. nominee for ambassador, Larry Palmer, accusing him of making disrespectful remarks about Venezuela's government. That led Washington to revoke the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador.